Current cache-based storage systems are unable to effectively determine or derive file system aware contextual information. Current cache-based storage systems, such as cache-based storage systems operating at very low levels as a tier-2 cache, lack a context of and proximity to file system I/Os. Because of the lack of context and lack of proximity, current cache-based storage systems lack an ability to improve data accessibility based upon the importance of the data being received. Additionally, because current cache-based storage systems lack a context of and proximity to file system I/Os, current cache-based storage systems necessarily lack the ability to obtain information about data access patterns of applications.
Being at a very low level, a tiered storage system or a storage controller of a lower level storage system or device is not aware of a data access pattern of an application or a file system. Lower levels (such as those housing a lower level storage system (e.g., a lower level RAID storage system)) do not have a means to directly obtain information about the type of data being accessed from the file system or from an application. The lower level storage system may be working as a tier-2 caching tiered storage system; however, host-side caching information is not passed to the cache of the lower level storage system.
Currently, there is no mechanism for application specific information to be sent down or passed down to a lower level storage system.
Therefore, it may be desirable to provide a method and apparatus which address the above-referenced problems.